


Sleeping Under the Spotlight

by santemiso



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dialogue Heavy, M/M, Not Beta Read, References to Act 1, Unresolved Romantic Tension, forehead kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:46:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25261072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/santemiso/pseuds/santemiso
Summary: Tasuku spends the night at the main stage to prepare for a play. He is accompanied by Itaru, who inadvertently gave him the idea after revealing that the Spring Troupe has spent the night onstage before.For A3 Rare Pairs Week 2020 (Day 2: Sleepover)
Relationships: Takatoo Tasuku/Chigasaki Itaru
Comments: 8
Kudos: 27
Collections: A3! Rare Pairs Week 2020





	Sleeping Under the Spotlight

**Author's Note:**

> My entry for the A3 Rare Pairs Week, Day 2. This time i choose **Sleepover**.
> 
> Probably even more dialogue-heavy than the last one orz.
> 
> Enjoy!

Tasuku opened the doors of the stage hall. Although he has stood there several times, he still marvels in awe upon looking at MANKAI Company's very own stage.

Both him and Itaru went on the stage, putting their sleeping bags on the side. Tasuku then turns on the stage lights, takes out his script and hands another copy of said script to Itaru. “Here. You’re going to play the role of the princess.”

“This is something out of my element, but hey, this might be interesting.” Itaru grins as he receives his script.

“We’re going to start from the top, okay?”

“Wait, aren't you just going to practice the parts you're nervous about?" Itaru asks, while flipping through pages of his script.

“I originally planned to practice only that scene, but since you took me to the main stage, might as well."

“A landmine..." Itaru murmurs to himself.

“Did you say something?"

“...Nothing."

“Let's start then."

Tasuku had landed a main role from a play by a nearby theater troupe, where he plays a knight who falls in love with the princess he was assigned to protect. Although it wasn't an unusual role for Tasuku, he felt like he wasn't able to bring out the character as he envisioned—as if it was lacking something; especially his last monologue, which is the thing that makes him very nervous the most. He originally asked for Tsumugi's help to practice together at the practice room, but Tsumugi couldn't make it and asked Itaru to help him instead, to which Itaru joked that they should practice on the main stage, but Tasuku took that a bit too seriously and asked the Manager for the keys to the stage hall.

...And then Itaru slips off by saying that the Spring Troupe did a sleepover on stage before. Now here they are, having a sleepover, on MANKAI Company’s stage of all places.

_Man, mentioning that we had a sleepover here is a mistake... might end up practicing all night... why did I say that..._ Itaru thought. _Huh. I just have to give it my all so i can get back to my games fast, then._

"Ready, Chigasaki?"

"Uh, yeah."

Practice begins. Everything seemed well at first, until Itaru started stumbling on some of the lines and movements which ended up with him getting lectures from Tasuku instead. Despite all of the nagging, he tries his best to be on par with Tasuku. Because he knows that Tasuku is a great actor… and he knows that if he keeps half-assing this, they would probably never finish practice.

Before practicing some final scenes, they then took a short break. Tasuku hands Itaru a bottle of water.

"In the end, it became a training session for _me_ instead..."

"Sorry. Force of habit."

“No wonder the Winter Troupe always look so exhausted after practice…” Itaru then looks at his phone. "Huh, a LIME message from Tsumugi..."

_[09:45 PM] Tsukioka Tsumugi: Itaru-kun, how is the practice going?_

_[10:12 PM] Chigasaki Itaru: yup_

_[10:12 PM] Chigasaki Itaru: everything's a-okay_

_[10:13 PM] Chigasaki Itaru: we wanted to do it in the practice room but we ended up going on stage LOL_

_[10:13 PM] Tsukioka Tsumugi: Really?_

_[10:13 PM] Chigasaki Itaru: i'll send you a pic, hold on_

"Tasuku, look here."

"Hey, what—"

Itaru quickly snaps a picture of Tasuku with his phone and sends it to Tsumugi.

"Wanted to send it to Tsumugi."

Tasuku sighs.

"Probably should send it to Kazunari too so he can upload it on the blog..."

Tasuku glares at Itaru. "Don't do that."

"Haha, just messing with you."

"..."

_[10:14 PM] [Chigasaki Itaru sent a photo]_

_[10:16 PM] Tsukioka Tsumugi: Looks like you guys are having fun. But are those sleeping bags on the side?_

_[10:16 PM] Chigasaki Itaru: yeah_

_[10:17 PM] Chigasaki Itaru: i told him the spring troupe stayed over on the stage once, so we're sleeping here for tonight_

_[10:18 PM] Tsukioka Tsumugi: Having a sleepover on the stage, huh… it must be really fun._

_[10:18 PM] Chigasaki Itaru: of course you'd say that LOL_

_Yeah, it’s kind of fun, actually…_ Itaru thought to himself. _Only if you’re with a lot of other people and not just two guys who planned this on the last minute._

Tasuku gets up and takes his script. "Ready to practice again, Chigasaki?"

"Yup. One sec." 

_[10:20 PM] Chigasaki Itaru: gotta go, we’re starting practice soon_

_[10:20 PM] Tsukioka Tsumugi: Okay. Good luck, Itaru-kun_

Itaru pauses and looks at the script. "It's going to be _that_ scene. You nervous?"

"...Yeah. But hopefully I can pull this off this time around. Let's start."

" 'Please, go on without me. I will go back and turn myself in… it’s me that they want, not you… so please...’ ”

“ ‘My duty was to always protect you from harm, my Lady. I will stay by your side at all times no matter what happens.’ ”

“ ‘No, you don’t have to! You don’t serve under me anymore… you’ve sacrificed yourself enough. I don’t want to see you hurt again because of me. Please, just go. I’ll go back and end this once and for all. For you, and for the sake of the people of this country.’ ”

“ ‘I will not let that happen. I will do whatever it takes to take you to safety, even if it costs my life. For I… I have fallen in love with you, Princess.’ ”

_Here it goes. The most important part. Take it away, Tasuku!_

Tasuku faced the empty audience seats and takes a deep breath.

“ ‘From all the years I have been by your side, I have always asked myself whether you were a ruler worthy of my services.’ ”

Immediately after the delivery of that first line, Itaru froze. Chills down his spine. His heart starts beating fast. Captivated by the performance, he finds himself closely watching as Tasuku delivers his line, following his expression and movement. 

He thought to himself. _He’s very serious about it as always, but…he looks different. He’s sparkling. If this stage is filled with an audience, all eyes would be on him. So this is the power of the former GOD-za prince…_

“ ‘You taught me to appreciate everything in life, even those that were most trivial. You have stood for your people countless times and treated them with equal fairness…’ ”

Itaru held his chest and feel his heart beating faster.

_And for some reason, I… I can’t look away._

“ ‘...you showed me kindness, courage and love, and proved that you are a competent ruler against those who look down upon you.’ ”

_No way. There’s no way I — no. He’s probably too deep into acting to— no way. Why am I even thinking about this?! There’s no way I want something more from that guy, especially only from this..._

Itaru tries to look at his script to distract himself, but as Tasuku continues to say those lines, they get louder on his head, his heart beats faster, palms starting to sweat, and his face starts to blush. He just simply couldn’t take it anymore.

_Get on with it already… you’re killing me with these lines..._

“ ‘And you did all of that with no malicious intentions and you meant everything you did from your heart. You have shown me that you are a worthy ruler — the one I swore an oath to protect for the rest of my life.’ ”

_It’s only his acting. I’m only amazed by his acting. He’s a good actor after all, that’s a given. There’s no way…_

“ ‘And that’s why, my Lady— that’s why I want to stay by your side.’ ”

_There’s no way that I have feelings for him…_

Tasuku gets closer to where Itaru is standing. He gets more agitated, his face turning even more red and tries to look away as Tasuku kneels and takes his hand.

“ ‘Because I love you, and I only want nothing but for you to be happy and be safe. And I will do anything in order to achieve that.’ ”

Itaru looks back at Tasuku. 

_Shit. Of all people in this company..._

He can hear the announcer on his head saying “GAME OVER” as their eyes meet.

_Why does it have to be him..._

Itaru stood still as Tasuku was still kneeling and holding his hand, processing everything that has happened for the past few moments. It feels like a blur to him. How did everything go so fast? It feels so unreal to him. While he hadn’t been paying close attention to Tasuku ever since the two started being troupemates in MANKAI, he was astonished by him, and his performance throughout practice. No wonder he was the top actor during his time in GOD-za.

“Chigasaki…”

Tasuku gets up and gets closer to Itaru, slowly catching his breath.

“Chigasaki… I did it… I finally delivered the line the way I imagined it.”

Itaru, still stunned, responds with nothing but a stare on Tasuku’s face, who was showing a bright smile. For someone like Tasuku, at least. It was a rare moment.

_Geez, he looks kinda attractive when he smiles like that..._

“...You okay?” Tasuku asked, feeling rather confused why he was staring at him like that.

Itaru snapped back to his senses and notices that they’re still holding hands. He quickly takes his hand away from Tasuku’s grip.

“You— is that the part that you were nervous about?!”

“Yeah. But I finally got it… I finally did it right. It’s all thanks to you, Chigasaki.”

“Well, I was just—” Itaru’s face immediately turn back into bright red. “You—”

Tasuku tilted his head in confusion, wondering why Itaru became so flustered.

Itaru quickly calmed down, and lets out a long sigh. “I was just being a stand-in. You did most of the hard work anyways.”

“No, you did pretty well too. You think I didn’t notice? After all of my comments, you then applied them and became more energetic. Which is something I didn’t expect coming from you. If only you’re like that when the Spring Troupe practices…”

“Hey, I was only trying to keep up with you. It’s not that easy, you know… geez. Come on. Let’s finish this.”

“You sure you can continue? You look a little unwell just now.”

“...That was nothing. I was…” Itaru pauses, then looks away. “...I was a little too surprised by your acting. That’s all. Especially when you took my hand. I was really caught off guard back there...”

_Huh, wonder why he got so nervous just now… maybe I overdid it?_ Tasuku thinks to himself. He then gets back to his script. “Okay then. Let’s start from where we left off.”

The two then rehearsed the remaining scenes of the play. As practice finishes, they set their sleeping bags on the stage, turned off the lights and lie down as their day comes to a close.

“Good work for today, Tasuku.”

“Yeah, you too. Thanks for helping me out on this.”

“Hey, I’m only standing in for someone. You seriously never done this with the Winter Troupe?”

“No. I love acting, but not _this_ much where I’d sleep on stage.”

“Even in university? You and Tsumugi were in the same theatre club, right?”

“We had training camps, but never literally on the stage like this.” Tasuku gets up and looks around the stage. “The stage is pretty big, actually. It could fit everyone here. Our next training camp should be held here next time…”

“If you pitch that idea to Sakyo-san we might have our training camps here for the rest of our lives.”

The two men laughed. 

_It’s rare to see Tasuku laugh, huh._ Itaru thought to himself. _Even when he’s laughing, he’s…_

“W-Well, time to go back to this game…” Itaru immediately turned his back away from Tasuku and opened his phone. Tasuku then went back to his bed.

The room immediately became dead silent. Only faint noises coming from Itaru’s phone can be heard. Tasuku stares at the stage’s ceiling, taking quick glances at Itaru before eventually breaking off the silence.

“Hey, Chigasaki… what were you guys doing in here in the first place?”

“Hm?”

Tasuku turned over to his direction. “When the Spring Troupe stayed over here.”

“Well—” Itaru turned over only to find Tasuku staring at his direction, and felt shocked.

_I thought I distanced my bed far enough, geez…_

Itaru tries to divert his attention by looking at his phone. “Well, we were just talking about this and that…you know.”

“Like what?”

“Stuff…” Itaru murmured while focusing on his game.

Tasuku moved closer to Itaru. “...Did you say something? I can’t hear you.”

Itaru looked away from his phone only to see that Tasuku is even closer to him now.

_He’s so close…!_

“Hm?”

Itaru looked back on his game. “Oh. Uh… Sakuya took us there. It was our first time with Yuzo-san when he came over when we were prepping for Romijuli, and we got pretty harsh critiques that day. For some reason the guys wanted to sleep on stage, so we did.”

“So it goes way back…”

“Yeah… I think that was the first time we actually bonded as a troupe, talking about the critiques we received that day. But back then I didn’t care about acting as much, so I felt kind of bad being there, honestly.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Told the Director that I’m quitting and all. Sakuya and the rest had to pull a play to stop me from leaving… it was hilarious, actually. But it made me change my mind after that.”

“...Actually, why did you join this troupe in the first place?”

“Free room. Since it cuts rent costs, I can spend more money on games--”

“Of course you’d think that…”

“Hey, back then I was a different person, okay? I thought I could get away with practice since I only played a supporting role and didn’t have much lines… but those guys and the Director really changed my mind. I don’t think I’d stay if they didn’t give me that much encouragement. It honestly felt wrong for me to continue staying there just because I wanted more money to play games. I had no experience or the passion for acting. But after practicing with the Spring Troupe, it made me more motivated to act...I even broke a leg for it, literally. After in the end, after Romijuli, I thought—”

“Hn…”

“Hey, are you even listening?” Itaru puts his phone down to check on Tasuku, only to find that he’s fast asleep. Itaru can feel his soul slowly leaving his body.

_He fell asleep?! After I poured all that out only for him to go to sleep…he’s also heavy, so there’s no way in hell that I’d move him alone…_

“Ah, geez… what am I going to do now… ” Itaru whispers to himself. He then gets up, looks around the room, and looked back at Tasuku.

_Come to think of it, he looks kind of cute when he sleeps… maybe I can—_

He tried to lean closer when suddenly Tasuku started moving, leaving him startled and back away.

_Why did I think of doing that. That was really stupid. No, I shouldn’t do that… but at the same time, this is a rare chance… God, this is really frustrating. I should just go to sleep..._

Itaru lies back down to his bed and turned away to attempt to sleep, but he kept looking at Tasuku back and forth.

_This sleepover was a mistake… why did I have to say that. Damn it, this was a huge red flag… but…_

Itaru turns over to look at Tasuku one last time.

_Fuck it._

He slowly leaned closer to Tasuku and gave him a soft kiss on his forehead.

“Good night.” Itaru whispered softly to Tasuku’s ear and rapidly went back to sleep.

_I’m going to really regret this, am I?_

Night passes, and the next morning finally comes. Itaru was sound asleep on the stage when he was startled by a voice calling for him.

“—taru-kun. Itaru-kun.”

Itaru gets up from his sleep, scanning the area fast to find Tasuku, but neither him nor his belongings are found. Instead, he found Tsumugi and Izumi right by his side.

“...Tsumugi? Director too...”

“Good morning, Itaru-kun.” Tsumugi greets him with a warm smile. “Tasuku went for his morning run.”

“Tsumugi-san told me that the both of you went to practice here and stayed over for the night, and I wanted to check on you as well…” Izumi chimed in.

“Ah, yeah, I asked him to accompany Tasuku rehearse for his upcoming play in my stead. Thank you, Itaru-kun.”

_This guy, seriously…_ Itaru thought. _First he asked me to stay over here with him, then he fell asleep while we were talking, and now he left me sleeping alone on stage… ah, so embarrassing…_

“Are you okay, Itaru-san?”

“Y-yeah, sorry. I’m still a bit tired.” Itaru replied. He gets up and packed up his things. “Come on, let’s go back to the dorms.”

Upon returning to the dorms, while putting back his things, Itaru’s phone started ringing. It’s a LIME notification from Tasuku.

_[07:31 AM] Takato Tasuku: Chigasaki_

_[07:31 AM] Takato Tasuku: Thanks for helping me last night_

_[07:32 AM] Takato Tasuku: Sorry I left you earlier_

_[07:32 AM] Chigasaki Itaru: np_

_[07:33 AM] Chigasaki Itaru: it’s fine, tsumugi and the director were there when i woke up_

_[07:34 AM] Takato Tasuku: Director was there too?_

_[07:34 AM] Chigasaki Itaru: yeah_

_[07:34 AM] Takato Tasuku: That’s nice to hear_

_[07:35 AM] Takato Tasuku: But really though, thank you accompanying me rehearse_

_[07:35 AM] Chigasaki Itaru: i told you already i was only doing a favor LOL it’s fine_

No response after that. Itaru puts his phone back in his pocket and gets ready when his phone starts ringing again.

_[07:38 AM] Takato Tasuku: Also_

_[07:38 AM] Takato Tasuku: If you’re going to kiss me next time do it when I’m awake_

_GAME OVER!_ Shouts the announcer in Itaru’s head. His face quickly flushes. He immediately puts back his phone and quickly ran outside his dorm room, slowly trying to forget everything that happened last night. 

But somehow… he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of joy beneath all of that.

**Author's Note:**

> _"Chigasaki. Here."  
>  "Hmm? What's this?"  
> "A ticket for the play. I thought I should repay you after helping me that time."  
> "You're inviting me on opening night?"  
> "Yeah. Hope I can see you there."  
> "Wha-- hey, I only helped you once-- and he's gone. Ah, geez... what a pain. These are front-row seats too..." (sighs) "It can't be helped. Guess I'll have to make time after work..."_
> 
> ###### author's notes
> 
> this ended up being longer than i thought orz i got too excited on writing the buildup...the sleepover part ended up being a bit too short sdjfskjdfs  
> it's not that different from my first one but i hope you enjoyed it heheh  
> tasuita is one of my favorite ships and i'm so glad i can contribute content of them again!  
> thank you so much for reading! <3


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